Tag Archives: Topic: Contraception

The Washington Times (AP): A Missouri lawmaker fighting required birth control coverage in his state-sponsored insurance plan is relying on the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Hobby Lobby ruling as he contests a lower court’s rejection of his legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act mandate.

Insurance News Net: In the face of mounting court losses the Obama administration Wednesday abandoned its appeals in several abortion-pill mandate lawsuits. The surrender means that existing court orders which protect family businesses in those cases from violating their religious beliefs will stand while the lawsuits proceed.

The Daily Signal: Alliance Defending Freedom, a non-profit organization, is litigating numerous lawsuits against the abortion-pill mandate. In light of the Hobby Lobby decision, Matt Bowman, the group’s senior legal counsel, said the Obama administration “was right to abandon its fight against the family businesses involved in these particular cases.”

Catholic Culture: “The administration was right to abandon its fight against the family businesses involved in these particular cases in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in June,” said Matt Bowman of Alliance Defending Freedom, a group which has provided legal representation for groups challenging the mandate.

CNA:“The administration was right to abandon its fight against the family businesses involved in these particular cases in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in June,” said Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, in a Sept. 4 statement.

In the face of mounting court losses, the Obama administration Wednesday abandoned its appeals in several abortion-pill mandate lawsuits. The surrender means that existing court orders which protect family businesses in those cases from violating their religious beliefs will stand while the lawsuits proceed.

Nathan Cherry: A group of four researchers at the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University say that very young adolescents (VYA) – kids between the ages of 10 and 14 – have a right to contraception and abortion. But that is the least troubling conclusion of this new report, published in Global Public Health.

The Hill: “What we see here is another revised attempt to settle issues of religious conscience with accounting maneuvers,” the group’s president, Russell D. Moore, said in a separate statement. The Alliance for Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council and a handful of conservative lawmakers agreed.

Town Hall (Baptist Press): Gregory Baylor, senior counsel for ADF, said the administration “has failed to extend its existing religious exemption to the religious owners of family businesses and to religious non-profits other than churches. That would have been the best way of respecting freedom for everyone.”

The Christian Post: “The government should not force religious organizations, family businesses, or individuals to be complicit in providing abortion pills to their employees or students,” Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor said in a statement. “Notably, the administration has failed to extend its existing religious exemption to the religious owners of family businesses and to religious non-profits other than churches. That would have been the best way of respecting freedom for everyone.”

Insurance News Network: “The government should not force religious organizations, family businesses, or individuals to be complicit in providing abortion pills to their employees or students. We will consult with our clients to determine how the government’s actions affect their sincere objections to the mandate. Notably, the administration has failed to extend its existing religious exemption to the religious owners of family businesses and to religious non-profits other than churches. That would have been the best way of respecting freedom for everyone.”

Christian News Network: “The government should not force religious organizations, family businesses, or individuals to be complicit in providing abortion pills to their employees or students,” said Senior Legal Counsel Gregory S. Baylor. “We will consult with our clients to determine how the government’s actions affect their sincere objections to the mandate.”

Christianity Today: If I had found out I was pregnant within the first year or so of my marriage, I probably would have cried unhappy tears and grimly braced myself for the end of life as I knew it. I was fresh out of college, ready to change the world, and not prepared to have kids.

Aleteia: It’s déjà vu all over again. The Friday afternoon dump has become a fixture of the Washington scene in the past decade and so. That’s when the Administration chooses to release information about its latest controversial action to the media.

The Washington Times (AP): Seeking to quell a politically charged controversy, the Obama administration announced new measures Friday to allow religious nonprofits and some companies to opt out of paying for birth control for female employees while still ensuring those employees have access to contraception.

The Wall Street Journal: The Obama administration outlined a new compromise designed to shield religious business owners and Christian universities and charities from the health law’s contraception-coverage requirements while maintaining the coverage for women.

Buzzfeed: The mandate is announced. The administration admits it will burden religion, so it announces very narrow exception for some houses of worship. Those that serve the poor of any faith are going to be excluded.

SCOTUS Blog: The Obama administration, planning to change its health insurance rules to satisfy the Supreme Court’s ruling in June limiting the federal birth-control mandate, proposed on Friday that for-profit companies with publicly traded stock will not qualify for a new exemption. A government fact sheet giving background and summarizing the proposed changes can be read here.

The Becket Fund: “Under pressure from hundreds of lawsuits, the government continues to retreat. After three losses in the Supreme Court and dozens of losses in courts below, the government continues to confuse the issues. The government issued over 70 pages of regulations, when all it needed to do was read the First Amendment. We’ll be reviewing this latest attempt with each of our clients.”

Life News: After losing to Hobby Lobby at the Supreme Court in a case about whether certain businesses who object to paying for abortion-causing drugs for their employees must follow the HHS mandate, the Obama administration has revised the HHS mandate rules.

Legal Insurrection: “The government should not force religious organizations, family businesses, or individuals to be complicit in providing abortion pills to their employees or students. We will consult with our clients to determine how the government’s actions affect their sincere objections to the mandate. Notably, the administration has failed to extend its existing religious exemption to the religious owners of family businesses and to religious non-profits other than churches. That would have been the best way of respecting freedom for everyone.” -ADF Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor

“The government should not force religious organizations, family businesses, or individuals to be complicit in providing abortion pills to their employees or students. We will consult with our clients to determine how the government’s actions affect their sincere objections to the mandate. Notably, the administration has failed to extend its existing religious exemption to the religious owners of family businesses and to religious non-profits other than churches. That would have been the best way of respecting freedom for everyone.” -ADF Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor

Public Discourse: In an article in First Things and several related pieces, Professor Hadley Arkes has argued that the plaintiffs in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, most of their supporters in the public square, and Justice Alito in his majority opinion in the case have adopted a mistaken and dangerous understanding of religious freedom.

The Boston Pilot (CNS): Kevin Theriot, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Louisiana College, said his client “simply wants to continue to operate as a Christian college as it has since its founding in 1906.”

One News Now: “Whether we’re talking about nonprofit Christian organizations like Louisiana College or family owned businesses like Conestoga Wood Specialties, the government certainly has no business putting religious freedom on the negotiating table or picking and choosing who is allowed to exercise their faith and how,” David Cortman, attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, says.

One News Now: Kevin Theriot of Alliance Defending Freedom says a federal judge has now handed down a decision that the mandate violates the school’s religious freedom. “It is a very well analyzed 60-page opinion,” he says. “Very well written, and carefully analyzed.”

Campus Reform: “All Americans should oppose unjust laws that force people—under threat of punishment—to give up their freedom to live and work according to their beliefs,” Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot said in a press release.

Christian News Network: “All Americans should oppose unjust laws that force people—under threat of punishment—to give up their freedom to live and work according to their beliefs,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Kevin Theriot.

Shreveport Times: “All Americans should oppose unjust laws that force people — under threat of punishment — to give up their freedom to live and work according to their beliefs,” senior counsel Kevin Theriot said in an email.

CBSDC: “All Americans should oppose unjust laws that force people—under threat of punishment—to give up their freedom to live and work according to their beliefs,” Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot said in a press release.

Alliance Defending Freedom: Louisiana College’s victory over the Obama administration’s abortion-pill mandate Wednesday puts the number of Alliance Defending Freedom wins against the mandate at 20-0. In addition, another ADF client, Conestoga Wood Specialties in Pennsylvania, received a district court order Thursday against the mandate as a result of its June 30 victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Burwell.

Alliance Defending Freedom: “All Americans should oppose unjust laws that force people–under threat of punishment–to give up their freedom to live and work according to their beliefs. Louisiana College is a Christian college that simply wants to continue to operate as a Christian college as it has since its founding in1906. The court–in the first final ruling finding against the mandate that we are of–did the right thing in striking down the Obamacare abortion pill mandate as it applies to Louisiana College’s health insurance coverage.” -ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot

The Daily Signal: Why did they go to court, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom? Regulations drawn up by the Department of Health and Human Services to implement the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, included the HHS rule mandating that employee insurance plans cover 20 forms of contraception, four of which are considered seen by many to be potentially life-ending.

Pro-Life Action League: It’s times like these that I’m reminded that “The Abortion Debate,” as it’s so often reduced to in everyday conversation, is about much more than whether or not unborn babies deserve the protection of law. Walking it backward, we see that at its root, it’s about two very, very different attitudes toward human sexuality.

The Washington post: Ever since a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held in Halbig v. Burwell that the PPACA does not authorize tax credits and cost-sharing subsidies for the purchase of health insurance on federally established exchanges, most commentators have assumed that the decision would be reversed by the full D.C. Circuit, rehearing the case en banc. Senior Judge Harry Edwards even called the majority’s decision a “proposed judgment” in his dissent.

The Christian Post: Three states have filed an amicus brief on behalf of an Alabama-based Catholic television station founded by nuns that is seeking an exemption from the Department of Health and Human Services’ “preventive services” mandate.

National Review: Unlike the pervasive, confused silence on the issue of elective-abortion coverage reported last October by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, insurance companies now are seemingly able to answer the question, “Do your individual plans offered on the exchange cover elective abortion?” The only problem: Those answers keep changing depending on who’s talking.

Today, the United States Supreme Court officially vacated the 6th Circuit’s decision that denied Autocam Corporation and its owners, protection against governmental violation of Constitutionally protected religious freedoms.

WND: “No one should be forced to choose between their deepest religious convictions and their profession,” said Kristen Waggoner, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom and lead counsel for the plaintiffs challenging the state regulations.

Christian News Network: “No one should be forced to choose between their deepest religious convictions and their profession,” added ADF Senior Counsel Kristen Waggoner in a press release announcing the submission to the court.

National Review: Recall that the first ground on which Ginsburg would have ruled against Hobby Lobby was her (badly misguided) proposition that a for-profit corporation is never a person capable of an exercise of religion within the meaning of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Pew Research Center: The U.S. public is evenly split in its view of the decision, according to a new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Roughly half of Americans (49%) say they disapprove of the ruling, while a similar share (47%) approve. Neither side seems to feel more strongly than the other: Most people say they feel either “disappointed but not angry” (35%) or “satisfied but not enthusiastic” (35%), and fewer feel “angry” (12%) or “enthusiastic” (11%) about the ruling.

Alliance Defending Freedom: The legal teams who won their cases on behalf of Conestoga Wood Specialties and Hobby Lobby at the U.S. Supreme Court filed a brief this week at the request of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit about the impact of the high court’s decision on a case involving two Washington pharmacists and a pharmacy owner. The 9th Circuit had suspended activity in their lawsuit, Stormans v. Wiesman, until the Supreme Court issued its ruling.

The Federalist: Colorado public health employees have come out with a new study purporting to show that providing free intrauterine devices (IUDs) and contraceptive under-the-skin implants for young women reduces abortion rates and births.

Life News: President Barack Obama has nominated a new “Religious Freedom Ambassador,” but his nominee opposes protecting the religious freedoms of the owners of Hobby Lobby, who don’t want to be forced to pay for drugs for their employees that cause abortions.

The Christian Post: The Obama administration is devising a plan that will allow religious nonprofits that object to paying for contraceptives and abortifacients in their healthcare plans and also object to filling out a form that allows a third-party to cover these products and services, to opt out.

ERLC: The White House announced plans on Tuesday to release a new accommodation for non-profit religious groups within the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate. A senior White House official explained, “This is part of ensuring that all women have access to contraception coverage.”

Life News: The Obama administration may back down somewhat on the pro-abortion HHS mandate that compels religious groups and businesses to pay for abortion-causing drugs and birth control for their employees after losing its battle against Hobby Lobby at the Supreme Court.

Washington Examiner: Misplaced balance is a major problem in today’s media. One politician says something completely false, and another points out that the false thing is false — and the media report it as a dispute. Better to point out that the false thing is false.

ABC News: The Obama administration is developing a new way for religious nonprofits that object to paying for contraceptives in their health plans to opt out, without submitting a form they say violates their religious beliefs.

Life News: There is one argument against the Hobby Lobby decision that is driving me crazy maybe because it is going unchallenged on Facebook pages and comboxes all over. It goes like this: if Hobby Lobby can deny health insurance coverage for birth control, then what will stop a company owned by other religious nut jobs from denying blood transfusions, chemotherapy, or inhalers for asthma?

Christianity Today: Widespread acceptance in our culture of all forms of birth control, including abortion, makes it harder for the Christian to discern if, when, and how to incorporate such practices into one’s own life, as well as what place personal convictions have in community and in public policy.

Deseret News: The propaganda wars that have ensued following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby case show no signs of abating as supporters and critics of the decision lay out their interpretations of what it means.

Life News: The Senate Democrats, led by Patty Murray, have called for an immediate vote on S. 2578, disingenuously titled the Protect Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act. It should be known for what it is, the Anti-Religious Freedom bill.

WRIC: Michelle Hui’s world was turned upside down when she miscarried on her way to work. But little did she know that she was actually expecting twins – and one of them went on to survive, even after she took abortion pills prescribed to avoid infection.

National Review: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops today sent a letter to U.S. senators outlining its strong opposition to the “Protect Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act of 2014,” i.e. the bill proposed by Senators Patty Murray (D., Wash.) and Mark Udall (D., Colo.) to gut religious-freedom protections in the wake of the Hobby Lobby decision.

National Review: A Democratic effort to reverse the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling “does not befit a nation committed to religious liberty,” according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who noted that the bill would undermine an array of conscience protections beyond the contraception issue.

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Life News: If you’re considering an abortion and want answers, help, or someone to talk with, send an email or chat online with OptionLine.org or call Pregnancy Line at 866-88-WOMAN. LifeNews Note: Kristi Burton Brown is a pro-life attorney, volunteering for Life Legal Defense Foundation and as an allied attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom. She is also a stay-at-home mom and an assistant editor for Live Action News. This column originally appeared at Live Action News and is reprinted with permission.

Pew Research: While Europe is not the region with the highest level of religious hostilities – that remains the Middle East-North Africa region – harassment and attacks against religious minorities continue in many European countries. Indeed, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center, hostilities against Jews in particular have been spreading.